Civilised and civilising

Kenneth Clark: Life, Art and “Civilisation”. By James Stourton. William Collins; 478 pages; £30. To be published in America by Knopf in November.
LORD CLARK OF SALTWOOD, who was ennobled by Harold Wilson in 1969 after the triumph of his epic television series “Civilisation”, became known more familiarly as Lord Clark of Civilisation. To one unsympathetic academic critic in the art world, he was Lord Clark of Trivialisation. Friends and colleagues called him simply “K”.
Neil MacGregor, formerly director of the National Gallery and the British Museum, argues that K “was the most brilliant... read more

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